Junkyard Find: 1990 Daihatsu Charade SX

The Daihatsu Charade was available in the United States for the 1988 through 1992 model years, then was forgotten more quickly than the speed at whichÂ Darmstadtium-267 decays. Still, among the Daewoo Nubiras and Kia Rondos and Sterling 827s and other forgotten machinery at your typical California self-service junkyards, you’ll see a Charade now and then.

Electronic fuel injection wasn’t exactly rare in 1990 U.S.-market cars. In fact, only a handful of cars didn’t have EFI by that point. Cool-looking emblem, though.

In this series before today, we’ve seen this ’89 CLS and this ’90 SE. Today’s find is a luxurious SX. What could be SX-ier than a Charade?

I think the Oldsmobile Achieva got slugged with a name more maddeningly stupid (and indicative of inept management) than the Charade, but the Charade is pretty close. What, no Japanese-English dictionaries were available when they were brainstorming this one? At least this one nearly made it to 150,000 miles.

This one has the 16-valve 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine, not the miserable 993cc three-banger.

In China, you can still buy new cars loosely based on the third-generation Charade, thanks to FAW Tianjin and other companies.

Proof that fun can be had in any car, I present a Charade-clone Tianjin Xiali sedan on a snowy road on the outskirts of a Chinese ghost city.